This episode of Refractive Podcast features Tom Coderre, Acting Assistant Secretary of SAMHSA, the Federal Agency overseeing Mental Health and Substance Abuse. He describes his path through addiction, his fall from the ambitious life he had crafted, and the road to redemption and self acceptance. Tom shares the lessons he learned about himself that help him to turn the volume down on self-judgment and find the loving care he deserves.
Tom Coderre had painful secrets. Growing up in a Catholic, political family in Rhode Island, with aspirations of elected office and a life in the spotlight, there seemed no room left for one major aspect of his life, a part of him that refused to sit quietly in the corner: his homosexuality. Balancing his outer world with his inner reality caused him a great deal of pain- a pain Tom managed through alcohol and other substances. While on the outside Tom’s life looked ideal- he was a Rhode Island State Senator at 25, then the Chief of Staff for the Rhode Island Senate President, this denial of his true nature brought his career crashing down around him, leaving him with no home, no career, and not even a will to live.
Through the world of 12 step-based recovery, Tom relaunched his life and today focuses both publicly and personally on helping others who are running from themselves and their problems with the aid of alcohol and drugs. By being willing to look inside himself and make peace with what he found, Tom opened the door to a more serene way of life and a life-long adventure of self-acceptance.
Join Johnny G and Tom in this important discussion around how to look in the mirror- and really see.
Links to materials referenced in this episode:
Daily Beast web story on the Call Me By Your Name monologue: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-call-me-by-your-name-monologue-leaving-audiences-in-tears
Click Here for Spiritual Teacher Byron Katie’s website.
For similar content, try these episode of Refractive Podcast: Making Peace with our Dark Side or The Ancient Truths of Acceptance & PLINKO
Visit www.RefractiveCoaching.com and www.RefractivePodcast.com for more resources. More content to support you in living your most authentic life, including the video version of this episode, can be found on the Refractive YouTube Page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6y-HQ1_9-xMnZyq7dhRl4A
Episode Transcript below, compiled via automated software service. Please excuse any wrongly-identified words or punctuation errors.
Speaker 0 00:00:03 Ever since you can remember, you felt something in your chest that tells you to move to love, to speak, to try day after day. You pretend you don’t hear it calling, or maybe you dismiss it as silliness or worse, but it’s there and it will wait for you as long as you need. My name is Johnny G and I invite you to join me on a journ...
